Muahaha!!

[Anonymous]

I had two of the same kind of snails, until about two this afternoon. One of my blue legged crabs killed one, then took its shell!! I can't believe it!

Here is a pic of the crab in it's 'new' home.

 

[Anonymous]

I no longer keep crabs for that reason.

 

[Oceans Ferevh]

They're opportunists for sure

 

[Nanogasm]

Shelled crabs like Hermits need new 'homes' as they grow. If there aren't any empty ones lying around, they often seek out a living host and evict them like the fate of your snail.

Your LFS might carry a bunch of empty shells of varying sizes. It is a good idea to grab a few, unless you prefer a gladiator oriented, 'the strong will survive', kind of environment.

If you get empty shells, try and get similar looking ones to your existing crab's shells, and provide small increments in size to the existing.

Cheers

 

[Anonymous]

Cool! Thank you!!

I really had no idea, as the LFS that sold me the crabs stated the shells grew with them. I'm so getting rid of these people.

Anne

 

[Anonymous]

I really had no idea, as the LFS that sold me the crabs stated the shells grew with them.

Anne

Really???? That is just criminal. Yes, find a new store!


That's why they are called "hermit" crabs, they move from home to home. :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

Well no worries that looks to be a "Margarita" snail, these are cooler water snails and end up living shorter lives in our tanks anyways

 

[Anonymous]

sfsuphysics
Hi!
I believe you are right, I picked them because their shells look like mother of pearl.

Might I ask what the {squat} under your name means?

Anne

 

[Anonymous]

sfsuphysics
Hi!
I believe you are right, I picked them because their shells look like mother of pearl.

Might I ask what the {squat} under your name means?

Anne

It means we don't know {squat}. :lol: ... (it's based on the number of posts).

Good luck with the hermits. Some people are against them exactly for the reason you described, along with the fact that they tend to crawl over corals and just be annoying.

Personally, I like them, and if you do, get a few extra shells as was suggested above.

Find a new store too. That was really poor advice.

~wings~

 

[Anonymous]

I really had no idea, as the LFS that sold me the crabs stated the shells grew with them.

Anne

Really???? That is just criminal. Yes, find a new store!


That's why they are called "hermit" crabs, they move from home to home. :lol:

I would use the word ignorant instead

I am at last coming to the conclusion that most LFS's that give new people bad advice are not really doing it on purpose, but out of ignorance. Its really hard to find good help, and the more I look for an intelligent hard working helper in my business the more I realize that its the same everywhere. Most of the kids I have seen that gave me bad advice were highschoolers trying to make money, not kids really interested in the workings of a reef in a box.

 

[Anonymous]

Wouldn't it be nice to have a list of LFS locations that have no idea what they are doing to portect reef members

 

[alice_curiouser]

Your LFS might carry a bunch of empty shells of varying sizes.

You can also find bags of shells on Ebay or in the craft section at Walmart - they're much cheaper this way, unless your LFS is a lot more resonable than mine. Just boil them first.

 

[Anonymous]

Wouldn't it be nice to have a list of LFS locations that have no idea what they are doing to portect reef members

Yeah, but I could forsee legal ramifications if they found out

Plus, how do you update it if one of them changes -- especially since no reef member would go there since it was listed...

 

[Anonymous]

If you don't want to buy them you can check into your local reef clubs as most of us who have been at this a while have tons of empty shells

 

[CiXeL]

you dont find experienced people at a lfs unless its the owners and sometimes not even then because it doesnt pay enough to run a reef tank.

 

[Anonymous]

Wouldn't it be nice to have a list of LFS locations that have no idea what they are doing to portect reef members

I made a suggestion a while back that a forum be created with the names of LFS's that gave good advice and sold/kept good critters. There would be no legal ramifications if you are giving them good ratings.

 

[Anonymous]

I have a 50 & a 135g tank hooked into a system (share same water & filtration). Originally I put snails & hermits in both, in the 50, the hermits seem to have become dominate, where as the 135g, hermits have all but died off save a few, and I'm noticing the 50 is cleaner.. but again, I don't have as many snails as I should in the 135... If I could find some cheap snails (and by cheap I mean I don't want to pay $1 per snail) about 100 of them, I might just try an experiment, snails vs hermits who's the better cleaner.

Although with different bioloads on each tank, and different flow pattern it'll hardly be the end all be all answer but might give a little bit of an insight.